Crested Caracara braking to land in full flare

[Arthur Morris]

This image (baited) was created on 7 November 2020 at the morning raptor blind at the fabulous Laguna Seca Ranch (https://www.lagunasecaranch.com/) in Hidalgo County, TX. I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1485540-REG/sony_sel200600g_fe_200_600mm_f_5_6_6_3_g.html/BI/6633/KBID/7226/kw/SO200600G/DFF/d10-v2-t1-xSO200600G) (at 448mm) and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1509600-REG/sony_ilce9m2_b_alpha_a9_ii_mirrorless.html/BI/6633/KBID/7226/kw/SOA92/DFF/d10-v2-t1-xSOA92) ISO 2500. Exposure determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/2000 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB at 9:10am on a cloudy-bright morning. Center Zone AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed superbly.

All comments are welcome and appreciated.

Jon, does this image have the color profile correctly embedded???

thanks with love, artie

ps: learn more about the creation of this image in the Road Trip News. And Flight Pose: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner bog post here. (https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2020/11/18/road-trip-news-and-flight-pose-winner-winner-chicken-dinner/comment-page-1/#comment-1803571)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Artie, it certainly does... and it looks very good to me. I like this one very much more than the previous, now you can see what I keep droning on about, there is detail in the "blacks" - because of course there is no such colour as black in nature. I like everything the pose , the "backs" and the "whites", the yellow have particularly good detail too, ...no halos. I have slight reservation over the OOF bird on the RHS otherwise it's rinky tinky:cheers:

[Paul Burdett]

Artie: Wow! Love it. Beautiful BG too. If it were mine (I'd print it and hang it up on my wall) I'd clone out the oof bird.

[Brian Sump]

Artie, fantastically sharp and the fully splayed wing position is superb!

I too would love to add this to my portfolio. A vote here to give a little more room left and though, I too enjoy an oof piece in the bkg for artistic flare, this Caracara is too dynamic and should probably stand on it's own.

Great spending time with you my friend!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Artie, love the image. Wonderful wing spread, techs look good. Thank you for sharing.

[gail bisson]

Love this one!
Great wing flare and nice and sharp.
I am Ok with the OOF caracara but would evict if if it was mine!
gail

[John Mack]

I read the blog post. Too much lens? Wish i had that problem more often. As for the image it looks great. Love the pose. The curled up wings are nice. Suprised you didn't remove that bird in the background.

[arash_hazeghi]

excllent landing pose, nothing to add except for I'd clone out the OOF caracara(?) near the right edge of the frame

TFS